Featuring over 200 mainly unseen images, scanned from original negatives and pulled from Life's vast archive, each page of Let's Dance reflects an influential era, important dance style, premiere dancer, legendary choreographer, or glamorous star-sometimes all in a single frame. Subjects jumping off the page include modern dance pioneer Martha Graham, ballet legends Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr, Elvis Presley swiveling his hips on stage, and Brigitte Bardot dancing barefoot on set in Spain. Let's Dance features not only professionals and celebrities, but regular people with a love for dance: couples swaying at a supper club in South Carolina, students in a ballet class in Suriname, indigenous dancers performing in India, Greece, Senegal and Mexico City, groovy 1960s disco kids, square dancers in Oklahoma, strutting debutantes, and Princeton college students letting loose at homecoming.

Along with expertly curated archival photography, Let's Dance features original Life covers and tear sheets, as well as an introductory essay and illuminating captions from dance critic Lyndsey Winship, providing vivid historical context. Let's Dance is not just a history of this captivating performing art, but an evocation of the bliss and catharsis of dance: urging readers to get up and (in the words of Whitney Houston) feel the heat with somebody.